Theory and Practice of Muslim State in India c8.s3.26

c8.s3.26

The great lords and petty contractors (*iqtadars*, *jagirdar*, *faujdars*, and *ijaradars*) collected the land revenue through their retainers. These retainers or troopers were hired by the nobles for a temporary period and were known as sib-bandis (or irregular levy) under the Mughals.[143] They were not considered eligible for musters and were generally regarded with some contempt when compared with the regular soldiers or *tabinan*. These quasi-troops behaved like modem *dadas* employed by their dons and they went to any length in perpetrating atrocities on the peasants and the common people. They entered the houses of the ryots and in many cases occupied them. Often through them girls of the family were abducted and forcibly married to their masters. This marriage also entitled the master to inherit the property and thereafter he cultivated (another man's) land on his own behalf. Their cruelties were a common knowledge. Even the royal scribe Jahangir describes this process in *Tarikh-i-Salim Shahi*.¹⁴⁴ On accession to the throne emperor Jahangir promulgated his famous twelve ordinances. One of these said that a government collector or Jagirdar should not without permission intermarry with the people of the *pargana* in which he might be; that the Jagirdars should not forcibly take the ryot's lands and cultivate them on their own account and that they should not take possession of any one's house.¹⁴⁵ In candid language girls of the ryots were non-chalantly abducted mainly through the exertions of hired retainers. This was also possible because the Jagirdar sometimes paid his own soldiers and retainers by allotting them a share of his revenue. In a note in the English translation done by Henry Elliot, he says that "these perpetual repetitions of the same edicts shows either the very weak authority of the original promulgators or the vain-glory of their descendents, in assuming to themselves credit to which they were not entitled."¹⁴⁶ For as Manucci observed, the king knew how the money was intended to be raised. The retainers or *sih-bandis* were employed with his knowledge and permission, and the collection helped satisfy the king's own greed.